Detection of biliary stones by means of endosonography.

For its particular qualities, endoscopic ultrasound tomography ( EUT ) appears to be a suitable method for achieving better results in diagnostics of bile duct alterations than conventional UT. In 10 patients with enlarged common bile duct. EUT was carried out with three different prototypes (mechanical sector scan, ultrasound gastrofiberscope . Olympus/ Aloka ). The encouraging results suggest that the high discriminating investigational technique of EUT may be superior to conventional UT for finding common bile duct stones, probably for the differential diagnosis of biliary drainage problems caused by tumors, too.